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[PrimusRibbus]

My Steam changed its language on me for no reason. I know I didn't change it.

Is it possible someone has access to your account?

It's more likely due to the fact that releasing untested Steam updates and quickly hotfixing things that go wrong is part of the culture at Valve. "Non-critical" features like language switching, broadcasting, and in-home streaming are frequent victims.

[Toaster]

Very first X-com free at the Humble store.

[Reelya]

Haha, I really have to try that now that they fixed the "bug".

Basically, they didn't wire up the difficulty settings. So people who completed the original game on hardest difficulty were playing the same game as the easiest difficulty. But the game was complex to learn and time-consuming enough that nobody noticed.

Then, when XCOM II (Terror from the Deep) was under development, player feedback said "boost the difficulty", that they were absolutely stomping that game even on the hardest difficulty: that it's a great game, but a cakewalk. So what did they do? The easiest difficulty level on XCOM II was set to the hardest difficulty on XCOM I, but not the actual hardest difficulty, the theoretical hardest difficulty that would have existed if the bug wasn't in there. The result is that XCOM II on the hardest difficulty is truly an insane game to play, and even on the easiest level it's 10 times harder than the original release version of XCOM I hardest level.

[ChairmanPoo]

Tbh TFTD's difficulty came more from the shitty stats on your equipment, darkness, and tough foes than from general difficulty IMO.

[Reelya]

It's a general stat buff for the enemies. You really should crank up the game on hardest difficulty and see what actually happens.

Greys become like super-snipers, with amazing view range and accuracy. I've had my entire team massacred on turn one just trying to get out of the plane to get cover, and they never even got a glimpse of what was shooting at them.

Another time, there were a couple of greys in the bridge of a small downed alien sub, they had corners to hide behind, basically massacred my whole team trying to get a line of fire on them. To take out even low-level grunts who have 2+ guys in a control room, you'd probably need grenades on hardest difficulty, direct fire weapons are no good because they have amazing reflexes and never miss.

Also, Lobstermen. Goddamn lobstermen on hardest level. My entire team opened up with heavy explosive grenades against a single lobsterman, as well as trying torpedoes, rocket launchers, demolition charges. You name it, if it existed, I loaded the whole team up to try it. It was like a gag scene in a battle anime. Each time there was an unholy pile of explosion and debris, everything terrain-wise blown to bits. But then, next rounds starts and I hear "squick-squick-squick" as the Lobsterman is moving around. In the end, I discovered the only way to stop lobstermen AT ALL on hardest difficulty was stun weapons, so i had to (at the start) give my guys stun batons and try and sneak up on a lobsterman who has a plasma rifle. Perhaps some of the end-game explosives can hurt a lobsterman, but nothing you get near the start can.

So you can take out bases (which are full of lobstermen usually), but you'd need to 100% equip stun weapons, which would really require you to mass produce those stun grenade launchers, but the problem is that you need the alien materials you get from bases to make those ...

So it's not just the gear, hardest difficulty on XCOM II causes you to have to play completely differently to how you'd play on XCOM I or the same game on basic difficulty.

[Toaster]

How to deal with lobstermen on terror missions

[My Name is Immaterial]

How to deal with lobstermen on terror missions

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[ChairmanPoo]

I've seen lobstermen survive three high explosives. And that's on level 2 of difficulty. Or even 1, I'm not really sure.

Lobstermen are the perfect illustration of my point: they are atupidly tough, and make your weapons seem pea shooters.

[Reelya]

But there's a noticeable difference between level 1 and level 5 difficulty.

A single sonic cannon blast will in fact kill a lobsterman most of the time, on the easiest level. So if you save scum, you can get through just about anything.

That doesn't work on the hardest difficulty, even your entire team of 10-14 guys unloading all types of weapons onto a Lobsterman won't take him down. One hit with a stun weapon does the job however, which I discovered out of desperation. You really don't want to be sneaking up on an armed lobsterman to do hand-to-hand combat with a cheap stun baton.

[Rolan7]

Not *most of the time*, but with enough savescumming, sure.
Assuming a sonic cannon, which has 130 average damage.  That means 1-260 damage.  "Easy" Lobstermen have 8 front armor and 90 health.
But wait!  They only take 50% of all sonic damage (30% gauss, incendiary, explosive, and a laughable 20% from AP, already the weakest weapons).

So you need to roll 98+ on 1-130.  The chance of that is pretty close to 25%.  Flanking shots aren't much better, since most of their "armor" is that flat damage resistance value instead of the directional armor.
And that's with sonic cannons, the plasma-equivalent!  With gauss or explosives, you better have packed extra ammo and saved money for more cannon fodder.

Spoiler: The trick, though it's still crazy (click to show/hide)

Drills.  They take significant *extra* damage, cracking them right open.
Course, they're armed with claws AND guns, so good luck charging in to melee!

Again, those numbers on on easy.  Have fun!

[Sensei]

X-Com: UFO Defense (that is, Ye Olde X-Com The First) is being given away for free on Humble Bundle so if you want a free Steam copy of old X-Com, go get it.

[lordcooper]

Hey guys, Humble Bundle is offering the original xcom for free.

[hector13]

Does anyone ever check the thread before posting?

[Gunner-Chan]

No.

Speaking of the original xcom is now free on humble bundle.

[Aklyon]

Indeed, it is now free and not full of lobstermen.